Printing machine delivery



March 22, 1960 A. M. ZUCKERMAN PRINTING MACHINE DELIVERY Filed April 28, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR m ADOLPH M. ZUCKERMAN.

BY B ATQRNEYE r h 22, 1960 A. M. ZUCKERMAN 2,929,625

PRINTING MACHINE DELIVERY 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 28, 1955 INVENTOR ADOLPH M. ZUCKERMAN. 2% W A ORNEY March 22, 1960 A. M. ZUCKERMAN 2,929,625

PRINTING MACHINE nsuv sa 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed April 28. 1955 INVENTOR ADOLPH M. ZUCKERMAN. BY

ATTZRNEYS United States Patent 9 PRINTING MACHINE DELIVERY Adolph M. Zuckerman, New York, N.Y., assignor to R. Hoe & Co., Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application April 28, 1955, Serial No. 504,614

3 Claims. (Cl. 270-72) This invention relates to printing machine deliveries, and more particularly to such deliveries for high speed magazine presses.

The press construction and ink drying equipment in magazine presses has been developed to a point where speeds of about 1500 feet per minute are obtainable, so far as the printing of the web is concerned. The forming of the web into the desired product and delivery thereof is, however, another matter. The jaw folding system used in magazine presses has not been reliable, as thus far developed, at cylinder periphery speeds much over 1200 feet per minute and the delivery of products for the packer box or tape delivery is a still slower operation. In consequence, it has not been possible to utilize the full printing speed capacity for magazine press type of folding and delivery is needed.

Newspaper folder components involving the use of a folding cylinder, folding the sheet into or between a pair of rolls and delivery bands are not satisfactory for many magazine purposes, by reason of lack of accuracy and tendency to smudge the printing.

The general object of the present invention is to enable the folding and delivery of products from a web printed at high speed in a magazine press while operating the folding and delivery components at eificient lower speeds so as to obtain accuracy and reliability.

A machine embodying the invention in a preferred form will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing and the features forming the invention will then be pointed out in the appended claims.

in the drawing:

Fig. 1a is a schematic side elevation of one end of the machine embodying the invention in a preferred form;

Fig. lb is a schematic side elevation of the other end of the machine, forming together with Fig. 1a a complete schematic side elevation thereof;

Pig. 2 is an end view looking in the direction of the arrows 2--2 of Fig. 1b, and showing the folder arrangement;

Fig. 3 is a gear diagram for the folder of Fig. 2; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are views similar to Figs. 2 and 3, but showing a modified form of folder.

Figs. 1a and 1b show the two halves of a printing machine (to the left and right of the dotted line L, respectively), reels R and R, supply webs W and W, which are printed by units A, B and A, B, each unit comprising a single impression cylinder I and two plate cylinders P, together with appropriate inking mechanisms. Folders F and F are provided for folding and delivering the webs and desired products. Heaters HA, HB and HA and HB are also provided, as indicated.

The form of the elements just described is, in general, well known and the specific details of the parts form no part of the present invention. Such details as to the roll changers, printing units, heaters, guide rolls and the like ice may be found in prior patents such as Horton 2,141,137 and Zuckerman 2,244,593 and 2,368,341.

The folders F, F may be identical or may be different, depending upon the service requirements of the equipment. It will be assumed for the present that these folders are identical and that they have the form indicated in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing. In Fig. 2, there is indicated a batch of four ribbons, r-l, r-2, r-3 and r-4, which are superposed or associated together, as indicated, and pass between cutting cylinders 10, 11. Cutting cylinder 10 is provided with knives 12, shown as three in number and equally spaced around its periphery, and cutting cylinder 11 has cooperating woods or blocks 13. Drive means (not shown) is provided for driving the cylinders 10, 11 at a peripheral speed equal to that of the printing cylinders I, P and the web printed thereby, which speed in a typical case may be about 1500 feet per minute. Associated with each of the woods or cutting blocks 13 are pins 14 for taking the leading edge of a batch of sheets as they are cut off the batch of ribbons r-l-r-4, and this batch of sheets is then transferred to the pins 15 of a collecting cylinder 16. From this cylinder the sheets may pass to either or both of two alternative delivery paths, leading respectively to packer box P-1 and packer box 'P-Z. The path leading to packer box P-1 includes a transfer cylinder 17 having pins 18 for taking the sheets from collecting cylinder 16 and with which there cooperates a pressure roller 19. From pins 18 the sheets are taken by the grippers 20 of the tucking cylinder 21 and are tucked by the blades 22 thereof into the jaws 23 of the jaw cylinder 24, with which there cooperates, in turn, another pressure roller 25. The sheets are passed from the jaws 23 of cylinder 24 to grippers 26 of delivery cylinder 27 and deiivered therefrom past pressure roller 28 into squeeze rollers 29 and so into the packer 'box delivery.

The details of the cutting cylinder parts, the pins, grippers, jaws and various rollers are well known in themselves and since they form, in themselves, no part of the present invention will not be further described herein.

Reference for such details may be made to Zuckerman in Fig. 3, the pitch circles being indicated in brokenlines, except where coincident with the profile of the cylinder with which the gear in question is associated, in which case only the solid line representing the cylinder periphery is shown. Cylinders 10 and 11 have meshing gears with pitch circles the same as their profiles, as also do cylinders 16 and 17, so that all these cylinders are driven at the same peripheral speed. Cylinder 17, however, carries a smaller driving gear 31 in mesh with a gear 32 driving the cylinder 21 (thereby reducing the peripheral speed of this cylinder). Cylinder 2 1 carries a gear with pitch circle coincident with its profile and driving cylinder 24 which carries a smaller gear 33 meshing with gear 34 and driving the cylinder 27. Gear pair 35, 35 drives the cylinder 21 of the delivery path leading to packer box P-2, the other elements in this path being the same as in the path P-l.

The ratio between gears 31 and 32 (also 35 and as) is selected to obtain a slow down in peripheral speed of about one-third. For example, in the construction shown the ratio between gears 31 and 32 is one to two (as, for example, 36 teeth to 72 teeth), while the ratio between the diameters of the corresponding cylinders is about a 3 three to four, thus effecting a slowdown from about 1500 feet per minute to 1000 feet per minute. Similarly, the gear ratio between a jaw cylinder 24 and delivery cylinder 27 is about two gto three (as; for example,

. 42 teeth to 63 teeth): {The diameters being in an 'ap proximately four to three ratio, a fifty per cent (50%) slow down or slow down to about 500 feet per minute is obtained. The gear 36 on tucking cylinder 21 in the second path leading to packer box P-2 has the same diameterand number of teethas'gear 32, and, accordingly, theelements in this path are driven at the same speeds as corresponding elements in the other path. T

With theequipment shown, a variety of operations are possible. First of all, the products as cutoff may be collected by the pins 15 of cylinder 16'and delivered solely through 'the'path leading to packer box P-l. Cylinder 17' has a diameter two thirds that of cylinder 16 and travels at the same peripheral speed. Accordingly, if the pins 18 meet a given set of :pins lS and take products therefrom,'.a full turn of cylinder .17 will bring its pins 18 midwaybetween the two sets of'pins '15 and two turns will bring it into position for'againtaking products from a set of pins 15. The cylinder 16 is thus enabled to collect products before passing them on to the cylinder 17 It will be observed that the process of collection involves a slow down in average rate of travel of a batch of cut sheets. Visu'alizing'a stream of 'sheets travelling at 1500 feet per minute as theypass through the cutters and the slots of the cutting cylinders, it will be apparent that the leading edge of each sheet issubstantially in contact with the trailing edge of the previous sheet and that the collection process in effect places alternate sheets on top of an adjacentsheet, so that the moving stream of sheets is now composed of' one-half blank spaces. Bycrowding the collected sheets together so as to eliminate or reduce these blank spaces, the linear speed of travel. may be reduced without reducing the quantity ofrnaterial being handled. It thus' becomes possible to slow down the partially formed products as they are passed from cylinder'17' to cylinder 21, which runs, as'previously stated, at-about two-thirds the speed, or, for example, 1000 feet per minute. The angular speed of cylinder 21 being half that of cylinder 17, the grippers 20 will alternately take products from'the pins 18, coming into sheet taking relation therewith at equally spaced intervals, but travelling at only two-thirds the thus folding them in a usual manner, and are then passed into the grippers 26 of the delivery cylinder 27, being held'justprior to this transfer and after release by the jaws'23 by'pressurefroller 25. Cylinder 27 travelling at two-thirds the angular speedof cylinder 24, and having three sets of grippers, will bring its grippers successively into sheet taking relation with the jaws 23 at the proper times, but these grippers will be travelling atonly about half the linear speed, or about 500 feet per'minute. The delivery of the products to the packer box delivery at thisspeed presents no problems. V

' Alternatively, the equipment may be operated without collecting, in which case, the sheets are delivered alternately from cylinder 16 to'the path leading to packer box P-1 and to the path leadingto packer box'P-2. 'It will be observed that the passing of alternate sheets to one of the cylinders 21 and the remaining sheets-to the other has the sameeifect-as the collecting previously mentioned in creating spaces between sheets, so that the linear speed ofvtravel may later be reduced by partly or entirely eliminating these spaces.

It will be observed that the orientation of the various cylinders with relation to each other has been selected in the machine just described so as to bring the delivery cylinder 27' in the path leading to packer box P-2 approximately under the cylinder 16 and in a convenient location for having the two packer boxes face in the same direction, as shown. Considerable variation in the angular relation of one cylinder to another is possible for locating. the delivery cylinders where desired, and one such variation is shown inthe modification about to be described.

As noted above, there may be a peripheral speed difference between cylinders 17. and 21 (Fig. 2) or 11 and 21 (Fig. 4) of about 500 feet per minute. In order to maintain exact control in registering the sheet'for folding by means of tucking blades 22, it is, therefore, important that the sheet be forwarded by cylinder 11 or 1-7, as the case may be, to. the cooperating cylinder 21 accurately and without'slip on the cylinder ll or 17. For this reason, the pressure roller 19 at this point (as also corresponding pressure rollers in similar locations), is positioned arcuately as close as practical to the axial plane of the cooperating cylinders 11, 21 or 17, 21, so as to hold the sheet under control until taken by the grippers 20. In view of the speed difference just mentioned, this involves a slight buckling of the sheet while still being fed by the pressure roller after the grippers have taken it. These rollers are so formed that they engage the product during only a portion ofeach revolution and they are disengaged in proper'timed relation with the closing of the grippers. As this timing is vari able depending on the size of the productandithe quality of the paper, means are provided to adjust the pressure and also the angular position of the productengaging surface of the rollers while the machine isrunning'.

What is claimed is: 1

1. A web printing machine delivery comprising cut olf cylinders for severing the printed web into sheets, forwarding means for the cut 011 sheets including a cylinderhaving pins for holding and releasing the same, a cylinder having grippers for taking the sheets therefrom and tucking blades for folding the thus taken sheets, and operating at a substantially lower speed, a pressure roller cooperating with the pin cylinder for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transferto the grippers, a jaw cylinder cooperating with the said tucking blades for transverselyfolding. the said sheets while continuing to forward the same, means for further substantially slowing down the said folded sheets and means for delivering the folded products thus formed, the said means for further substantially slowing down the said folded sheets comprising a pair of cooperating cylinders havingrespectively sheet holding means for passing the folded sheets from one of the said pair of cylinders to the other and a second pressure roller cooperating with the first cylinder of the last said pair for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transfer from the onesaid sheet holding means to the other said sheet holding means.

2. A web printing machine delivery comprising cut off cylinders for severing the printed web into sheets and operable at a speed materially in excess of one thousand feet per minute, forwarding means for the cut off sheets including a cylinder having pins for holding and releasing the same, a cylinder having grippers for taking the sheets therefrom and tucking blades for folding the thus taken sheets, and operating at a substantially lower speed of about one thousand feet'per minute, a pressure roller cooperating with the pin cylinder for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transfer to the grippers, a jaw, cylinder cooperating with the said tucking blades for transversely folding the said'sheets'while'continuing to forward the same, means for further substantially slowing down the said folded sheets and means for delivering the folded products thus formed, the said means for further substantially slowing'down the said folded sheets comprising a pair of cooperating cylinders having respectively sheet holding means for passing the folded sheets from one of the said pair of cylinders to the other and a second pressure roller cooperating with the first cylinder of the last said pair for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transfer from the one said sheet holding means to the other said sheet holding means.

3. A web printing machine delivery comprising cut off cylinders for severing the printed web into sheets and operable at a speed materially in excess of one thousand feet per minute, forwarding means for the cut off sheets including a cylinder having pins for holding and releasing the same, a cylinder having grippers for taking the sheets therefrom and tucking blades for folding the thus taken sheets, and operating at a substantially lower speed of about one thousand feet per minute, a pressure roller cooperating with the pin cylinder for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transfer to the grippers, a jaw cylinder cooperating with the said tucking blades for transversely folding the said sheets while continuing to forward the same, means for further substantially slowing down the said folded sheets to a speed of about five hundred feet per minute and means for delivering the folded products thus formed, the said means for further substantially slowing down the said folded sheets com prising a pair of cooperating cylinders having respectively sheet holding means for passing the folded sheets from one of the said pair of cylinders to the other and a second pressure roller cooperating, with the first cylinder of the last said pair for holding the sheets thereagainst prior to and during transfer from the one said sheet holding means to the other said sheet holding means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,624,985 Sheldon Apr. 19, 1927 1,979,093 Barber Oct. 30, 1934 2,353,445 Crafts July 11, 1944 2,528,159 Meyer Oct. 31, 1950 2,842,360 Crafts July 8, 1958 

